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Ben Shahn Biography

Ben Shahn, Artist
Occup.Artist
FromLithuania
BornSeptember 12, 1898
DiedMarch 14, 1969
Aged70 years
Ben Shahn was born upon September 12, 1898, in Kaunas, Lithuania, and also died on March 14, 1969, in New York City. He was a prominent painter, graphic artist, and photographer whose touching works recorded the social as well as political problems of his time, making him one of one of the most substantial and prominent artists in 20th-century America.

Early Life and also Education
Ben Shahn and his family members emigrated from Lithuania to the United States in 1906, where they settled in Brooklyn, New York. As a young kid, Shahn was passionate concerning art, music, and also literature. He took place to go to the National Academy of Design, Cooper Union, and the City College of New York, done in New York City. He additionally apprenticed as a lithographer from 1917 to 1921, prior to enhancing his education in Europe.

While in Europe, he examined at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris as well as discovered fresco painting in Italy. It was during this time that Shahn established an appreciation for the work of the Italian Renaissance painter Giotto, which affected his creative style.

Creative Career
Upon returning to the United States, Shahn started his career as an artist, mainly focusing on painting and graphics. His very early jobs showed solid social and political messages, showing the impacts of his European advisors, the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, and also the social realistic look of Ashcan School musicians in the United States.

In the 1930s, as the Great Depression held, Shahn became related to the New Deal art programs in America. As part of the Public Works of Art Project, he added to a series of murals illustrating American life and was commissioned to create murals for a number of public buildings, consisting of the Bronx Central Annex Post Office in New York.

Shahn additionally worked as a digital photographer during this duration, adding to the Farm Security Administration (FSA) task, which documented the effect of the Great Depression on rural America. Some of his most famous photos caught the daily battles of average Americans, earning him a track record for caring documents.

Prominent Works and Style
Shahn's artistic style is identified by his use of touching images and also social discourse. His most famous job, the "Sacco and also Vanzetti" collection (1931-32), is based on the very questionable trial as well as implementation of Nicola Sacco as well as Bartolomeo Vanzetti, 2 Italian immigrant anarchists implicated of murder. This work brought him acknowledgment as well as stands for a transforming point in his profession.

Other significant works by Shahn consist of "The Passion of Sacco as well as Vanzetti" (1932), a collection of panels completed as a homage to the men, as well as his mural "The Resources of America" (1933), which was developed with the aid of Diego Rivera for the New Workers' School in New York.

Shahn is also recognized for his depictions of vital figures such as Martin Luther, and for his photos of people facing hardship or battle. As an artist, he made every effort to portray the human condition with raw honesty, empathy, and also regard.

Personal Life and Legacy
Ben Shahn married Tillie Goldstein in 1924, as well as they had three youngsters with each other. After Tillie's death in the early 1930s, Shahn married Bernarda Bryson, a fellow artist that collaborated with him on a number of projects. They had 2 children as well as were married up until Shahn's fatality in 1969.

Shahn's job has had a long lasting effect on the world of art and on the way social concerns are shown in various media. Today, his art can be located in major galleries and collections throughout the United States, and he remains a considerable figure in 20th-century American art.

Our collection contains 27 quotes who is written / told by Ben.

Related authors: Diego Rivera (Artist), Giotto di Bondone (Artist)

Source / external links:

27 Famous quotes by Ben Shahn

Small: Roy was just another bureaucrat to me, but I realized very soon that without Roy this thing would have
"Roy was just another bureaucrat to me, but I realized very soon that without Roy this thing would have died"
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Small: Its pretty hard to measure influence of written or visual material
"It's pretty hard to measure influence of written or visual material"
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Small: An amateur is someone who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional
"An amateur is someone who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable him to paint"
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Small: I remember traveling around in Arkansas with Senator Robinson, and I told him what this little trick wa
"I remember traveling around in Arkansas with Senator Robinson, and I told him what this little trick was. He felt very much part of it and had me take pictures of people unbeknownst to them"
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Small: I feel, having the choices I had, I felt I had more control over my own medium than I did over photogra
"I feel, having the choices I had, I felt I had more control over my own medium than I did over photography"
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Small: When you talk about war on poverty it doesnt mean very much but if you can show to some degree this sor
"When you talk about war on poverty it doesn't mean very much; but if you can show to some degree this sort of thing then you can show a great deal more of how people are living and a very great percentage of our people today"
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Small: The time when I had desire to go to the United States I didnt have a penny. It was in the middle of the
"The time when I had desire to go to the United States I didn't have a penny. It was in the middle of the depression, you know. I couldn't get as far as Hoboken at that time"
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Small: In the South or in the mine country, wherever you point the camera there is a picture
"In the South or in the mine country, wherever you point the camera there is a picture"
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Small: I did take my camera along, as I felt there wouldnt be enough time to draw the things I wanted to do.
"I did take my camera along, as I felt there wouldn't be enough time to draw the things I wanted to do. I did some drawing and did a lot of photography but I was not part of Stryker's outfit at all"
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Small: Ive been asked a great deal about the influence Ive had with my work and its impossible to say, you kno
"I've been asked a great deal about the influence I've had with my work and it's impossible to say, you know"
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Small: I was so impressed with the work we were doing and I was very involved ideologically in photography - t
"I was so impressed with the work we were doing and I was very involved ideologically in photography - that I arranged an exhibition at the College Art Association. The first exhibition I picked the photographs and so on and we had an exhibition in New York"
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Small: I felt very strongly the whole social impact of that depression, you know, and I felt very strongly abo
"I felt very strongly the whole social impact of that depression, you know, and I felt very strongly about the efforts that this Resettlement Administration was trying to accomplish; resettling people, helping them, and so on"
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Small: Some time ago, we went to Asia and took a camera along, and I began to do what Id done even years ago d
"Some time ago, we went to Asia and took a camera along, and I began to do what I'd done even years ago doing people. I couldn't get interested in it. And I did hundreds of photographs of details of the monuments as sculpture"
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Small: Now, when I came on to Washington to begin my job, I was so interested in photography at that time that
"Now, when I came on to Washington to begin my job, I was so interested in photography at that time that I really would have preferred to work with Stryker than with my department, which was more artistic if you wish"
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Small: I was primarily interested in people, and people in action, so that I did nothing photographically in t
"I was primarily interested in people, and people in action, so that I did nothing photographically in the sense of doing buildings for their own sake or a still life or anything like that"
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Small: I didnt care where my works were published
"I didn't care where my works were published"
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Small: Whatever I get involved in, Im totally involved, you see
"Whatever I get involved in, I'm totally involved, you see"
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Small: Its a little bit like my inability to read a guide book before I go anywhere. I can read it after Ive b
"It's a little bit like my inability to read a guide book before I go anywhere. I can read it after I've been there and by the same logic I refuse to accept any technical stunts from anybody. I refused to learn more than I knew and I confess I missed a great deal"
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Small: I was brought in, not in the photographic department at all, I was brought in on a thing called Special
"I was brought in, not in the photographic department at all, I was brought in on a thing called Special Skills. I was to do posters, pamphlets, murals, propaganda in general, you know"
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Small: I confess that Roy was a little bit dictatorial in his editing and he ruined quite a number of my pictu
"I confess that Roy was a little bit dictatorial in his editing and he ruined quite a number of my pictures, which he stopped doing later. He used to punch a hole through a negative. Some of them were incredibly valuable. He didn't understand at the time"
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Small: So, I was offered this job to come down there but first it was suggested that I take a trip around the
"So, I was offered this job to come down there but first it was suggested that I take a trip around the country in the areas in which we worked to see what it's all about, and I tell you that was a revelation to me"
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Small: Of course I realize that photography is not the technical facility as much as it is the eye, and this d
"Of course I realize that photography is not the technical facility as much as it is the eye, and this decision that one makes for the moment at which you are going to snap, you know"
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Small: Now, my knowledge of photography was terribly limited
"Now, my knowledge of photography was terribly limited"
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Small: In 38, this time I did a job for Mr. Stryker. I went on his payroll at about half the salary I was gett
"In '38, this time I did a job for Mr. Stryker. I went on his payroll at about half the salary I was getting before, to cover what he called Harvest in Ohio"
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Small: I still love to look at photographs but I couldnt do it myself anymore
"I still love to look at photographs but I couldn't do it myself anymore"
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Small: I became interested in photography when I found my own sketching was inadequate
"I became interested in photography when I found my own sketching was inadequate"
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Small: When a man returned from the field and wed look at the work, wed criticize each other very genuinely an
"When a man returned from the field and we'd look at the work, we'd criticize each other very genuinely and never offensively. And we would avoid all tricks, angle shots were just horrible to us"
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